Indian food for beginners: the Biryani night

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It’s been a while since I last posted about my Indian food experiments, mostly because we haven’t hosted a curry night since moving. This one was very much a spur of the moment; apparently I’m an impulsive cook, in as much as I try to make the most of my ‘I really fancy cooking’ moments and invite someone as soon as possible, preferably before the creative rush has faded. In the space of one afternoon, I went from ‘I don’t know what we’re having for dinner’ to ‘let’s have a guest over and eat chicken biryani I’ve made from scratch’. Because I like to live on the edge, there was no chicken in the house so I prepared everything hoping Badgerman would come back from his band practice early enough with the chicken…

I love hosting around food.  We were in excellent company and I think chicken biryani might be my favourite. I don’t know what it is about a good meal that relaxes people, but it’s always helpful to gather people around a focal point, and food always works, whether it’s crisps or a barbecue. It does help when the recipe is solid and basically fool-proof as well, and again The Spicery didn’t disappoint. I’ll be forever surprised by how glossy their chutneys turn out, and I would never have guessed the rose petals on top of the rice would be anything but overkill. Seriously, why would you want to make rice glamorous? The answer is simple actually: because it works.

biryani ingredients
chicken biryani ingredients (minus the chicken)

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the tomato chutney and chicken marinade
the tomato chutney and chicken marinade
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